The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775 by John Trumbull (American, 1756–1843)
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The Battle of Bunker's Hill June 17 1775 by John Trumbull
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My mother. An uncle. A cousin. Another cousin. And others. Keen genealogists all.
Late in her life I took up my mother's hobby on her behalf, finding new information, more stories, more history which we discussed and enjoyed. She is gone now and I am left organizing all her voluminous files, bringing new order to all those loose ends.
One of the things I have meant to do for a number of years is to pull together as best I can, all our direct ancestors who served in the American Revolution. Since my family lines originate early in both Virginia and Massachusetts, there are a large number of individuals. Some lines are very long lived and some shorter. Consequently, I have individuals ranging from six to nine generations ago who were alive at the time of the American Revolution. Perhaps 300 male candidates who could have served.
One branch started the war on the side of the British but then halfway through, based on the terror of Tarleton, switched to the American side.
Some had arrived only in the most recent couple of decades from Palatinate Germany, but the overwhelming majority were already one hundred and fifty years or so deeply planted in the early colonies.
There are a handful of Quaker branches, there are a good number, especially out on the frontier, where the records are just not adequate to tell what was happening, there are occasions where the ages did not line up (father too old and sons too young). There are a small number of lines I cannot trace back that far owing to record ambiguity.
Even so, there are thirty-two family lines where I can document a direct male ancestor with military service or Patriotic service (elected public office, supplying the American forces, and the like). Five of those lines have instances where father and son (direct ancestors) both served.
And indeed, the whole war was a family affair. For every direct male ancestor who served, his siblings and the brothers of his wife were also likely to have served. And his sons. And his uncles and father. His cousins. There are a couple of families where, had they all come together at one place and time, they would have had more than a 40-man platoon of serving blood relatives.
Thirty-seven director ancestors served, ranging from a single service for a month as a Minuteman responding to the Lexington Alarm to one who served two multiyear tours in the Continental Army from beginning to the end of the war.
Some were in their seventies when they served, some in their late teens. A couple of them died during their service. Many lost family members.
They are from almost all the States - Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
They are now names in dusty records, and crumbling books and in only a few memories, but it is worth remembering all of them specifically for what they did, what they sacrificed, what their families sacrificed. For us today. They gave us the first and longest enduring Constitutional Republic based on the principles of the Age of Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution.
In gratitude for what they did for us:
4th Great-Grandfather John Bayless, Virginia Continental Line, Five years5th GGF Ezekiel Hampton, North Carolina Militia5th GGF William Carroll, North Carolina Continental Line, Two years5th GGF William Franklin, Georgia Continental Line6th GGR Captain James Currin, North Carolina Militia5th GGF Captain William Martin, North Carolina Militia5th GGF Shadrack Mercer, North Carolina Patriotic Service4th GGF Ambrose Latting, New York Militia, One year5th GGF Colonel Andrew Morehouse, New York Militia Five years5th GGF Lieutenant Colonel Robert Longley, Minute Men (Lexington Alarm) and Massachusetts Continental Line6th GGF Zachariah Whitman, Massachusetts Militia5th GGF Lieutenant Thomas Whitman, Massachusetts Militia4th GGF Captain John Biggar Bibb, Virginia, Prince Edward County Militia, Four years.5th GGF Captain James Philemon Holcombe, Virginia, Prince Edward County, Patriotic Service and Member of Committee of Safety4th GGF James Baggett, South Carolina, South Carolina Line4th GGF Abraham Briley4th GGF Captain John Young , Virginia, Augusta County Militia4th GGF John Miller Marr, Virginia Continental Line, Three years6th GGF Johann Dietrich Leonard Struble, New Jersey, Patriotic Service5th GGF Ensign Daniel Struble, New Jersey, Militia6th GGF Henry Couse, New Jersey, Patriotic Service5th GGF William Loveridge, New Jersey, Morris County Militia7th GGF Abraham Pinney, Connecticut, Patriotic Services4th GGF John Murray, South Carolina, Patriotic Service and Soldier5th GGF Samuel Nelson, South Carolina, Continental Line5th GGF Peter Culbreath, Georgia, Continental Line7th GGF Thomas Shepherd, Virginia, One year6th GGF Thomas Shepherd, Maryland Militia5th GGF Sergeant Richard Cox Bond, Virginia Continental Line, One year6th GGF James Cozby, Virginia, Patriotic Service5th GGF James C. Cozby, Virginia First Light Dragoons, Five years6th GGF Lieutenant Joseph Browder, Virginia, Brunswick County Militia5th GGF Lieutenant John Mefford, Maryland Militia5th GGF Benjamin Bailey, Virginia Militia and Patriotic Service6th GGF Francis Cheatham, Virginia, Patriotic Service6th GGF Jeremiah Early, Virginia, Patriotic Service5th GGF Colonel Jeremiah Allen Early, Virginia, Bedford County Militia. Also Patriotic Service
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